MTG Salvation

Not so sure about Sphinx's Rev, it has already dropped a lot in price. You can pick them up for $13 now whereas they were once $25 minimum.

I primarily play Standard and I'm not as well-versed on non-rotating formats. I am aiming to trade away cards from these sets pretty soon before they become worthless, but I know that sometimes cards retain value because they could be used in non-rotating formats. Are there any cards from RTR block and M14 I should consider holding onto?

Deny is interesting, might be just a tad overcosted. Counterspelling is a tricky thing with costs... I believe it's been said that the right cost for a vanilla hard counter is UU and 1/2 colorless, basically. Consider that Negate can target very close to any spells that Deny would be able to counter (aside from auras), and a lot of things it can't that are important to counter. That would suggest that it should cost less than Negate. The addition of countering an ability is a nice addition, but keep in mind that this in most cases delays the ability only 1 turn, and you lose a card to do that while most of the time the opponent's permanent with the ability remains in play. I'd say it is balanced at the same cost as Negate, 1U.
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Halting Clock 4
Artifact (R)

Any time where a player would draw exactly 1 card, that player instead draws no cards.

0: If you have no cards in your hand, and no spells or effects are on the stack, draw 2 cards. Any player may play this ability.
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I may need some assistance on nailing the wording on this. The conditional requirement of spells and effects not being on the stack is to prevent using the ability in response to itself to draw the entire deck. I think it's sufficiently worded to prevent that, but if not, please let me know.

Yeah, Mutavault is the easy answer. Desecration Demon's not even close considering that it has actually been absent from a handful of winning Monoblack Devotion decks.

Honorable mention for Thoughtseize.

I noticed in the rules that the following is not to be discussed here:
"Prices and Speculation (that includes "what should I buy" threads)"

I was interested in discussing which cards in RTR block & M14 can be expect to retain value after rotation in the fall, and I am not sure where is the proper place to discuss this. Thanks for any help on this.

Yes, I know there will be a new core set and the first set of the next block before rotation. This is just some metagame speculation based on what we know now.

My money would be on Red/Green Midrange. After rotation, we'll still have access to Polukranos, Stormbreath Dragon, Sylvan Caryatid, Xenagos (both the PW and God), Courser of Kruphix, and we can expect Mystic Elf to stay in M15. That's a pretty solid base to keep. There will probably still be some variant of Garruk in M15, either the current one or a new one.

Monoblack Devotion is losing Pack Rat, Desecration Demon, Nightveil Spectre and/or Lifebane Zombie. That's pretty harsh and I think the deck will be a lot less effective.

UWx Control is getting wrecked. Theros Block offers hardly anything for this deck (Only really Dissolve and a couple removal spells). It loses Mutavault, Supreme Verdict, Sphinx's Revelation, Detention Sphere, Aetherling, Blood Baron, Jace, Architect of Thought.

LOL, nothing in Standard is worth a ban. The general rule of thumb when considering a ban is, is a certain deck type comprising an unfair number of wins, and more importantly, are the only other winning decks those which are built solely to defeat it? If that's the case, then you look at which cards are enabling the deck. It's absolutely not the case in current Standard. Not even close.

The more interesting question is, which cards can we assume are not making the transition from M14 to M15? I think they'd have to be crazy to let Mutavault continue on. It appears in almost 80% of winning decks currently, and that's something Wizards generally frowns on, even if the card is not broken enough to warrant a ban (it's not even remotely close to that). If you got 'em, I'd get rid of 'em now before they plummet in price.

Maybe some weird deck where every card in the deck is 2CMC, so you can always trade any non-land in your hand for any other non-land in the deck. Of course, you kinda need Springleaf Drum for this guy, and that's only 1 CMC...

There are a few cards revealed so far that I think are going to greatly change how UWx Control is played. One of them might spell the end of the deck as a tier-1 competitor. That would be Athreos, God of Passage. I believe this card will be able to bring Xathrid Necromancer decks up to tier-1 level, and the deck is going to be a big threat to UWx Control. Depending on who goes first, this card will frequently enter play before it can be countered, leaving only valuable Detention Sphere as a popular maindeck option. This is bad because Detention Sphere is also a safe way of getting rid of the Necromancer. I believe UWx can adapt to meet this threat, but in doing so it may have to devote too much sideboard to that and end up spoiling its effectiveness against other decks.

The other card I'm really interested in was just revealed today: Eidolon of Rhetoric. Could this card fill a sideboard role in shutting down fast aggro decks? It does work nicely with counterspells... counter their first spell and they cannot play any others. But it's pretty vulnerable. It will never live long against burn.

For people who play UWx, how do you feel about the prospects of the deck going into JOU-Standard?

I think the Siren is solid. Judge's Familiar and Cloudfin Raptor are rotating out with RTR, Monoblue Devotion will need other options.

The best use I can think of for Worst Fears is with Chandra's ultimate, if you can use careful scrying to make it on top of the library at the right time.

There's so much mana flexibility in current standard that I would go with the esper version and not worry about getting mana screwed. The Supreme Verdict combo is pretty rough (although you should never play it against control decks, let them be forced to use their own).

I also think a particular UW human is currently underplayed: Deputy of Acquittals. This card plays a specific valuable role. Detention Sphere targeting Xathrid Necromancer is a pretty common way to beat the deck. Flash in Deputy targeting Xathrid in response and you effectively nullify the Detention Sphere. Or against other removal if you're simply not ready to lose the necromancer yet.

That works, too. That's good, the deck should have several redundant ways of getting the combo.

Quote from TBuzzsaw

3. You can't discuss new cards here.

I thought that rule meant threads specifically about a new card (like with the prefix SCD in the title). If we can't mention the cards at all, then can a mod please move this thread to that other forum?

This is a very early draft, looking to get feedback on whether such a thing could be viable for serious competitive play in the new standard.

The deck


For those that don't know, the deck aims to pull off an infinite damage combo involving the Boros Reckoner, Boros Charm OR Ajani's Presence, Dictate of the Twin Gods, and any source of damage. Because every part of the combo other than the Reckoner is at instant-speed, it is possible to trick that source of damage into being an opponent's blocking creature. You redirect the Reckoner's ability damage to itself, which doubles from the Dictate. Do it over and over, and finally shoot the opponent for however much you want.

The rest of the deck is about protecting the combo. I splash a very small amount of black for Thoughtseize, the aim being to pull disruptive cards from your opponent's hand before trying to go off. This is probably an absolutely necessary strategy against control decks, and that's why there should also be 4 Duress in the sideboard. The deck also has Brave the Elements to protect the Reckoner from things like Detention Sphere, Doom Blade, or Hero's Downfall. I went with 4 Magma Jets over 4 Lightning Strike, because the added scry is very important in trying to make sure you get the cards for the combo.

The main difference in viability between this deck and some of the other combo decks proposed for Standard (such as the elite arcanist ones) is that the cards involved here are all good without the combo. You can win with burn and Reckoner damage. The Dictate should still prove very effective even if you don't get a Reckoner. You can probably afford to use up a Boros Charm or 2 for damage since there are 8 sources of indestructibility in the deck. I would not hold onto that card before at least getting the Reckoner out.

The sideboard is almost completely up in the air, but here are some ideas to get it started:

Some threats (and how to deal with them from the sideboard) include: Master of Waves (Doom Blade), Obzedat (Hero's Downfall), Blood Baron (Mizzium Mortars), Counter magic (Duress, Thoughtseize, Slaughter Games). Extreme, but finite, life gain is not an issue, so I am thinking you don't need Skullcrack.

I have thought very little about how many of the actual cards to use, and there are probably some other cards I haven't thought of that would help protect or accelerate the combo. Any advice is welcome.

How do you guys feel about the late-game combo with Cyclonic Rift and Reap Intellect? Worth trying?